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“… it would be true to say the labels would not be where they are without Scott’s invaluable vision, design and input” – Tony ‘Justice’ Bowes

Despite having a soft spot for bespoke artwork design and illustration, it has taken me an embarrassingly long time to adopt a decent site icon and logo for the blog and my social media accounts. After almost six years of blogging and some hopeless scribbling on photo editors, I eventually decided to add a touch of art and aesthetics; a logo that would reflect the blog’s vision and output. For that purpose, the graphic studio Metro Design has delivered brilliant brand-new icons and logo. A complete retouche of the site though is a project for another day. The rather incomprehensible head title is the result of a stream of consciousness, paraphrasing a song written by Tricky (original title ‘Brand New You’re Retro’, featuring on his ‘Pumpkin’ EP, released on Island Records’ offshoot 4th & Broadway, 1995), which in all honesty caught my attention due to Alex Reece’s remix.

Metro Design is the new venture of Scott London, the electronic music producer known as Metro. Continue reading →

“Ortem is a platform, which will be the home of fresh tracks, overseen by Metro. The emphasis will be stationed around drum and bass and electronic music delivered in all its innovative forms” – taken from the label’s inaugural press release

“A grid usually refers to two or more infinite sets of evenly-spaced parallel lines at particular angles to each other in a plane, or the intersections of such lines”

Ortem

Metro is the primary recording alias of Scott London. I have been following his production output since day one; from his collaborative work with long-time friend and recording partner Justice for Modern Urban Jazz and its subsidiary Muj for downtempo, breaks and broken beats to his regular appearances on a wide array of affiliated record labels.

“The music policy – as always with the label – is to be progressive and not be constrained by boundaries or genres” – Tony “Justice” Bowes

MPOD

The MPODseries is a critically acclaimed podcast series, published by the forward-thinking indie label Modern Urban Jazz (MJAZZ). Featuring a plethora of artists, producers, djs, collaborators, affiliates and friends of MJAZZ, coming from all over the globe, the MPODinstallments are characterized by an eclectic cross-genre selection, covering a wide palette of exhilarating and experimental electronic music, abolishing all musical stereotypes.

The Modernists is a highly acclaimed, collectible, limited edition, compilation series project released by the forward-thinking Modern Urban Jazz (MJAZZ) label. To the time of writing The Modernists series consists of four volumes (official release date of the 4th volume is the 22nd of July, 2013), featuring mainly artists and affiliates of the MJAZZ collective. An eclectic cross-genre selection, covering a wide palette of electronic bass music, from techno to deep drum and bass, with clear electro, house and hip-hop influences, every volume seems to be pushing the music boundaries even further.

Limited to strictly 100 copies per installment, with hand finished artwork and stickers or badges included, every release is a collectible; an approach that seems to be becoming more popular within drum and bass, rendering every physical copy unique and individual.

With a history that goes hand in glove with that of the development of drum & bass and jungle itself, Tony Bowes, aka Justice, has consistently spearheaded new musical forms. He is very much instrumental in the birth of drum & bass and is heralded as one of the true pioneers.

Raised in Luton, Justice began producing at the age of 17 with friend Conrad Shafie (aka Blame). The two met while studying media at college in Dunstable, and went into the studio in 1991 to try their hand at producing hip-hop tracks. Instead, they emerged with Death Row – one of the earliest examples of hardcore breakbeat – on ChillRecords, a UK bass, bleeps and breakbeat label which was based in his home town of Luton.

While the rave scene progressed into a self-parodic fluff, Blame and Justice continued producing, both together and on their own. Pushed into new directions by the emergence of a mellower, atmospheric sound in the drum and bass spectrum, the duo formed ModernUrban Jazz Records. Continue reading →